Chinese Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes

Simple food brings great happiness --- perfectly describes what the dish scrambled eggs with tomatoes (番茄炒蛋) means to Chinese.  

A plateful of delicious softly scrambled eggs with juicy tomatoes is comforting and soul-healing!

Made this dish at least 3 times in the past month. It goes well with steamed buns, rice, noodles, breads, salads… literally anything~

This dish is a staple on all Chinese people’s dining tables, every household has its secret recipe. Here’s a version I love these days--- adding tomato sauce to amp up the tomato flavor. A little sugar to balance tartness from tomato.  Hope this simple dish brings a smile on your face!

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

6-7 eggs

½ tsp salt for eggs

1 tbsp milk

1 lb. (4-5) ripe tomatoes—on-the-vine are usually sweeter

3 tbsp tomato ketchup

½ tsp salt for tomatoes

½ tsp sugar

6-8 tbsp cooking oil

Instructions: 

1.     Rinse and chop tomatoes in chunks.

2.     Whisk eggs in a bowl, mix in salt and milk.

3.     Heat up 3-4 tbsp cooking oil in a (non-stick) frying pan over medium heat. Pour in eggs in the center of the pan.

4.     Wait about 5-10 seconds for the edges just barely start to set, swipe with a spatula from edge towards center to form soft curds. Keep the heat on medium-low.

5.     Continue with this gently swiping/ folding process. Work quickly to avoid overcooking the eggs. Turn off heat when the eggs are still slightly runny on top and barely set.

6.     Put soft scrambled eggs in a bowl and set aside.

7.     Heat up another 3-4 tbsp cooking oil in a clean frying pan over medium-high heat. Stir-fry tomatoes until soften and aroma released, season with salt, sugar, and ketchup (or tomato sauce).

8.     Turn the heat to low. Put scrambled eggs back in the pan. Stir fry quickly so tomato juice covers eggs evenly. Serve with rice or steamed buns~